Federal shutdown vexes greens, pleases industry

Environmental groups are howling, but energy companies are mostly staying mum about the government shutdown and the trench warfare that has paralyzed Washington.

Green groups have worked overtime to draw attention to the national park closures and absence of Environmental Protection Agency inspectors since the shutdown began Tuesday, but fossil fuel trade groups have mostly shrugged their shoulders about the staffing furloughs that have drained many agencies.

And though oil and gas drilling or mining permits could be delayed in an extended government shutdown, it would be weeks or months before companies really felt any pain, according to GOP and industry strategist Mike McKenna.

“Government is a hell of a lot more important to the environmental groups than it is to businesses,” McKenna said. “Businesses for the most part are only tangentially interested in what government does on a really good day.”

The American Petroleum Institute hasn’t commented aside from a statement noting that the industry contributes $85 million per day in revenue from taxes and fees to the government.

“While we continue to closely monitor Congress as it tries to make headway on our nation’s budget, this is another reminder of how critical our industry is to the economic health of our country,” API said in a statement Friday that was only slightly modified from one it issued last weekend. The statement calls for “government with smarter regulations, expanded access to federal lands and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.”

Other business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Gas Association and Edison Electric Institute, sent a letter to members of Congress on Monday to urge lawmakers to find a quick resolution to the federal spending and debt ceiling impasses.

“It is not in the best interest of the employers, employees or the American people to risk a government shutdown that will be economically disruptive and create even more uncertainties for the U.S. economy,” they wrote. “Likewise, we respectfully urge the Congress to raise the debt ceiling in a timely manner and remove any threat to the full faith and credit of the United States government.”

Meanwhile, environmental groups are sending out updated statements daily and focusing mostly on furloughs of EPA Superfund inspectors and the closure of more than 400 national parks to the public — but not oil and gas extraction.

“The government shutdown we now face means no cops on the beat against toxic pollution. It means that we’ll have to dress like oil executives if we want to visit our national parks and monuments,” Sierra Club President Michael Brune said in a statement earlier this week.

The Interior Department has stopped processing new oil and gas permits, but production on federal lands is continuing, and its offshore safety arm was busy during the shutdown monitoring the industry’s evacuation ahead of Tropical Storm Karen.

And one lawmaker appeared unfazed by the shutdown of the government on the oil and gas operations

“Everything is going along good,” Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) said of his state’s oil and gas industry. “Our new development is very minimal. We’re rebuilding and repairing and fracking now. So permitting has already been done.”

Still, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) asked Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to put a stop to energy production on public lands while visitors to national parks are being locked out.

The environmental groups have been largely united in their messaging.

A dozen groups — including Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club — urged lawmakers in a joint letter to reject Republican efforts at “piecemeal funding” of government programs, including one that would fund the National Park Service. The groups say “the only credible solution is one that opens the entire government for business.”

But energy industry backers argue that the green camp reaction is more about politics than true impact.

The shutdown is “not a good way to govern,” said industry lobbyist Scott Segal of Bracewell & Giuliani. “That said, the reason you hear loud reaction from the environmental community is they are actually part of the apparatus of selling the administration’s message.”